Wanted to get an idea...
 

Hello all,
I'm currently in a dilemna with my two yorkies.

I wanted to know how many of you have fully housebroken your yorkies to only pee and poo outside and those who haven't housebroken them yet.

I guess I wanted to take a kind of poll.

If you wouldn't mind just taking a few seconds and stating whether you have or haven't, I really would appreciate it.

I know this subject gets talked about a lot on here and I see a lot who are struggling with this and others who aren't, but it's hard to get a good idea of who actually has been successful with the housebreaking.

Thanks a bunch!
Melanie

In the past I had 3 females that were all toilet trained to go outside. With Dennis I used the Wee Wee pads and he was 80% when he was 8 weeks old! He was always good. I just purchased Sahara and she is also about 80% at 4 months, though now Dennis has decided he is a big boy and prefers for me to take him out to go, go figure! I call him my big boy now. As soon as I get the harnesses I ordered I think Sahara will be trained also to go out, but will have the pads down till she is probably about 8 or 9 months. Never had a problem toilet training any of them.

Kacee is fully house trained and was by around 4 months of age. I've said before that she had a couple of accidents after she was spayed, but I think that was just from the surgery. She hasn't since that time and she was 6.5 mos old then. I trained her to go either outside or in the attached garage on pads. She always rings her bells. Never, ever has accidents. I still give her treats afterwards, too. She expects them and she's worth it, because she tries so hard to be good.:)

Trixie is fully house trained, she can either go on the pads or outside.
Scampers and Poptart are almost fully house trained and they too can go on the pads or outside.
House training is very simple for us, it is just a matter of me taking the time to train them.

I'm sad to say Lillie is NOT potty trained yet, she is doing great though, but still has accidents. I always make sure after her naps I take her out right away. or if I leave and shes in her pen, I take her potty just as soon as I get home.

Lola is almost 6 months old and completely housebroken to pee/poop outside. I leave her in her playpen with food and water when I'm gone and she holds it till I get home to let her outside. While home she'll go and scratch on the door when she wants out.

Snickers and Baxter are both housetrained to go outside or on wee wee pads. Snickers was trained at about 6 mos., Baxter took a little longer - around 9 mos. :aimeeyork

charlie is 9 months and completely trained to go outside, he has been trained since he was about 4 months

Debbie is supposed to use her pads but I'm just happy when she doesn't use the carpet. She'll be real good for awhile and then who knows? She's four years old now and I've had her since she was 10 weeks. She's goes outside too but never lets me know when she has to go. I wanted her to use the pads because I live in a condo and don't want to have to get up and get dressed at all hours. I keep her in the kitchen when I'm gone and she has a pad in there but usually holds it in. I just feel better about her being able to go if she needs to in case she's left longer than anticipated.

That Bissel Spot Bot does a great job on the accidents though!

my 2 are not :(

Buddy was outside trained within two weeks after we got him. He was 12 weeks old when we brought him home and the breeder had already worked with the puppies. He still pooped for about two weeks after that, but quickly learned not to. I think I had maybe two or three pee pess's and maybe 10 poo's in the house before he started going out ALL the time. He is now 8 monlths old and we just don't have a problem. I think he is the best doggy I have ever owned. Love my Buddy!!!!

romeo is 3yrs old and pretty good. he goes outside and on wee wee pads. i can't trust him when we visit friends or family. accidents happen. he is about 95% trained when at home.

I have two Yorkies a male and a female. They both are trained to go out side and on peepad. There are times they will go else where. My male will try an dlift his leg when the female is in heat and will wear a belly band at that time only and My femalehas went on the floor once when the furnace man came, she was scared of him an dpeed and ran. but other then that they are pretty good about going to the pad or out side.

Darla is 6 months old and fully housebroken. We started her on pee pads and she learned very fast. Now she ONLY does her business outdoors.

Reece is 10 weeks and wants nothing to do with pee pads..he wants to go outside like his sister!! We take him out every 30-60 mins and it seems to work well for us!!

Dawn

Eddie was 90 percent house-trained at 6 months and 100 percent at 9 months. We didn't use pads or a crate, though in retrospect I'd crate train a puppy.

The secret was reward, reward, reward when he got it right.

Polls are easy to do, btw. Go to the polls forum, create a message, then scroll down on the message form to 'attach a poll.'

Joey has been 100% trained to go outside since he was approximately 4 1/2 to 5 months.

He rings a bell to let me know when he needs to go out. As with AlaskaYorkie, the secret was reward, reward, reward!

Zena is fully house trained, she only goes outside. We got her when she was 8 months old and she learned to do her business outside within a week or so. She had the occasional accident afterwards, but she stopped having those quite soon.

I wanted to add that the lady I got Lola from had already puppy pad trained her by 11 weeks. That was a godsend! Those puppy pads teach them where it's appropriate to go, I think. It made it much easier for me to housebreak her. At first I'd put a pad in her playpen when I was gone and take her out all day long(I'm a stay at home mom) but eventually I'd come home and see she wasn't using the pads, that she was holding it to go outside. I was worried she'd be confused using both methods but she wasn't. I'd suggest to anyone trying to potty train to start their puppies out with the pee pee pads...they're wonderful. It was also easier for me because I'm mostly home so I could take her out a bunch of times during the day.

WOW!! Thanks all for responding!!

In most of your posts, the ones that have yorkies that are totally trained to go outside, a lot of you stated that it was fairly easy to train them to go outside.

What was it that you did or didn't do that made it so easy? I know all dogs are different and that plays a factor in it.

Did you all keep them confined for the most part? For those that used an xpen to help with housebreaking, did you put pee pads in there? When did you get rid of the pee pads?

Sorry for all of the questions. I'm in a dilema. I have two wonderful puppies. But they aren't housebroke yet and because of a difficult pregnancy and being on and off bed rest and my mother in law having lung cancer, my husband and I thought it was best to find my puppies a new home. My other two kids are just beside themselves with the news. My 10 year old won't speak to me.

I'm just trying to understand this breed a little more and try to figure out if it is possible to housetrain, and if so, what is the easiest way to do that. I don't want to give my babies up.

my older yorkie is housetrained even though i seriously thought she never would be she's over a yr old now and my new baby he's 4 months he's close to being hous etrainedi jave a bellyband to help prevent accidents! just take thm out all the time to begin with and i mean at least once a hour and eventually they will catch on!

Millie is 100% housebroken and she only goes outside. I have trained her to go outside from the day we got her at 12weeks old. She was reliably housebroken by about 6 months old. She is about 1 1/2 year old now.

I used and x-pen and a crate to keep her confined, ONLY when we could not watch her 100%. The x-pen had her crate in it, a doggie bed and toys. I put her food and water bowl in there too. I was told that they would not poo or pee where they eat and sleep, so I made sure it was very evident to Millie that this was her eat and sleep space. (She never did mess in her crate or her x-pen) When she whined we let her out, she went directly outdoors to pee or poo. I never had a pee pad in there. We never did start on the peepads because I was told by a dog behavioralist to "just say no!" to peepads. She told me that it only encourages the puppy to go in the house when you are trying to establish for them that the entire house is the "den" and it's not ok to go anywhere in the house. So when we were not there I crated her and when we were there, I x-pened her or kept constant watch over her.

With Millie, I made sure that she was never, ever out of my site and we started small, from crate, to x-pen, to one room, to 2 rooms and then to the rest of the house. She never had free range of the house until she was reliably house broken. Small dogs have a different sense of space. A small dog can pee in the corner and feel proud of him/herself. In his mind he's gone as far away from his bed as a full-sized dog who has gone to the far end of the yard. Lots of small dogs have trouble grasping the concept of distance. That is why we taught Millie in stages. Her little world only expanded on her progress with any one room we were working on.

The best advise I can give is that you must be as actively (if not more) involved in the potty training business then even your dogs are. But the rewards are very great if you expend the energy up front.

So while Millie was not a "breeze to train". (she was not stubborn, she was just unconcerned or clueless) She was trainable and because of my diligence she only had 4 mistakes total in the whole 3 months we worked on potty training. Afterwards, it was just a matter of reinforcing what she had learned and was trained to do. Praising, treating and constant reminders thru out the day.

Like stated in the other threads, in the beginning, I took Millie out, a lot! About every 45 min to an hour. I made her walk to the door with me and when she went out to do her business, I went with her. I never left her unattended. I made sure that she understood that she was out there for a reason and one reason only, to go potty. Since our space was enclosed (and it was a very small space) I did not keep her on a leash, however, I would recommend a leash if you don't have a small fenced area. (I did have to put her on a leash when it was raining, because, in the begininng, she really did not want to be out there in the rain, and yes, we made sure she stayed out in the rain (me included) until she did her business. At first, I used the clicker to identify the proper behavior. I would tell her "go potty" and as soon as she squatted, I would click. But because she would hear the click and expect a treat, she sometimes would interup her pee to get the treat, so then when I knew she knew what "go potty" meant, I waited to click until after she was done going pee, but I clicked immediately when she was done, and then treated her.

Unfortunately neither of mine are fully potty trained. They attempt to mark the house on occasion and they will use the potty pads when we are not at home.

Zoe is 7 months old and mostly housebroken. She for the post part holds it until we get home but on weekends, when we let her have a run of 1/2 the house, she will pee on pads or on the non-carpeted area but will not poop in the house. She is good at holding #2. I wish I could get her fully trained.

I have a pee pad in the kitchen and one in the family room on carpet
Of my four:

Emilee (3 yrs old) pees on pad...poops on kitchen linoleum
Gidget (19 mos old) pees and poops on the pad in the family room
Izzie (7 mos old) goes mostly on either pee pad, still may have an accident, poops on kitchen linoleum
Joey (2 yrs old) wears a belly band, but poops where ever he can get away from the others.

Soon as I can get a fence up I will be trying to get them to go outside as much as possible. We have a fence now, but not at either door. We have one hooked on to the garage and I don't like using it that often, especially in the winter. I have to walk to the other side of the garage to get in the fence.